GHOSTS AND GHOST SENSITIVES PART 1

Embracing another reality

These stories were written for an as yet unpublished book co-written by Pete and I titled ‘ We’re still not Alone’.

Wikipedia defines a ghost as the apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and usually encountered in places she or he frequented, or in association with the person’s former belongings. The word ’ghost’ may also refer to spirit or soul of a deceased person. Ghosts are often associated with hauntings…

Ghosts are controversial anomalous phenomena. According to a poll conducted in 2005 by the Gallup Organisation, about 32% of Americans believe in the existence of ghosts…

In many historical accounts, ghosts were thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life.

Critics of ‘eyewitness ghost sightings’ suggest that limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for such sightings, for example, air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night.

Bryan, whom we first met in our book So You Think We’re Alone? has a very interesting talent. He sees negative, ghost-like energies as dark brown or black clouds attached to domestic objects such as curtains, furniture, animals or people. These energies, which seem to Clive to be thought forms, can be disturbing, debilitating and depressing to people living in houses infested with these things. People are affected by them, but do not necessarily see them. If those affected are fortunate to be able to attract Bryan’s ghost-busting services, then the negative energies will be cleared using a very simple process.

His intuition told him to use salt, or salty water, to cleanse the negative energies. By washing objects, humans or animals, the energies are dissipated. Bryan particularly recommends washing in the sea. Yet again, the salt connection comes to our attention.

On one occasion during his ghost busting, Bryan saw many of these repulsive forms attached into the back of the home’s old dog. The way that these things attach themselves is by hooking the energies to objects in the material world. He says that they feed on fear, so another way of clearing these energies is to laugh. Now, this seems like good advice in general to raise our spirits, (so to speak).

Clive reinforces Bryan’s view that negative energies attach themselves to physical objects, particularly dirty or neglected items. Matthew, Clive’s son, asked his dad to perform a clearing ritual in his pub and restaurant. Matthew, although not interested much in the spiritual world, nevertheless recognises the value of an alternative perspective on physical energies. Matthew had become increasingly unhappy with the feel in his establishment. He was of the view that the thoughts and actions of certain members of staff and customers were lowering the atmosphere of the place.

 Clive did as he was asked and performed a clearing ceremony. There were some abandoned rooms above the premises which contained old clothes, rubbish and peeling décor. The atmosphere there was awful, Clive sensed. After the ceremony was over, Clive appealed to Matthew to clear out the upstairs rooms, for it was clear that negative energies were attached to the things dumped there and were contributing to the general unease that Matthew was feeling about his pub. The pub has become a pub-restaurant and is a thriving business.

Bryan has contact with another ghost buster, a woman with wild hair and a broad Bristol- Gloucestershire accent. This woman must have quite a reputation. She was called by the Ministry of Defence and invited to do some ghost busting in an old aircraft hanger. She replied, ‘That’s fine old dear. It will cost you foive ‘undred pounds.’ The MoD accepted the quotation.

 The deal done, Wild Hair went to the underground hanger. Security personnel, and other staff, were terrified to enter due to the constant banging of doors, including banging on the hangar doors. This was often when no live person was around. There was also a constant, cold, spooky atmosphere.

Once in the hanger, Wild Hair waved away the security officers ‘Off you go me dears. I don’ need ye, go on clear off.’ She was pretty bossy also. As she entered she had ascertained immediately what the problem was. Up in one high corner of the hanger, psychically she saw hundreds of ghosts. It transpired later that they were the spectres of dead people.

So, true to personality, she stood facing them, hands on hips. ‘Right me dears, I want yew to go. Go on now, off yew go now. Yew are not welcome here.’ And off they duly went, the whole pack of them. The last sight she had of the assembled spirits was them flying away towards the spiritual light. The hanger became quiet and subdued. The MoD staff could relax and Wild Hair pocketed her ‘foive ‘undred pounds’ for a minute’s work. Everybody was happy.

 As she left, Wild Hair was told that the hangar had been used as a temporary store for body bags containing US servicemen killed in Vietnam. They were flown in from Asia, stored and then transferred to the United States.

Pete also has a talent related to discarnate entities. He sees ghosts of people all the time. In the street, in buildings, in his own home, he sees hundreds of them. In his world, the number of ghosts that are visible is huge. One time he was sitting in a café, through the window he idly watched the world go by. He saw a man crossing the road accompanied by a dog.

Mmm… he thought. That dog looks like a ghost to me. I wonder if that chap knows he has a dog walking by his side? No sooner had the thought formed, when both man and dog disappeared. So Pete had been half right, both had been ghosts.

TIMESLIP PART2

 My experiences possibly brought about by the unsettling of the energies in my home reminded Clive of this gem. He thinks that this story originally came from Carl Jung who had come across it in a local newspaper. Jung subsequently investigated it as far as he could. It happened somewhere in Central Europe.

A man went to visit an address, replying to a newspaper advertisement for the sale of an item. His destination was an old building several stories high. He rapped with the very old fashioned door knocker. After a pause an upstairs window was flung open and an old woman poked her head out asking him whom he wanted. She was dressed in a rather old fashioned way with a shawl round her shoulders. The man gave her the name of the person that he was visiting. There was a pause while the woman seemed to take some time to absorb his request. Eventually she said, “The whole family is out. You may enter and wait if you wish.”

Not having anything better to do, the man said that he would. After a pause the be-shawled woman opened the door and led the man to a room where he was left to himself. He was charmed by the room. It was very old fashioned with a big oak table in the centre, a pendulum clock with roman numerals ticked loudly on the wall. Heavily embossed Victorian wallpaper hung on the walls and other large and dark Victorian furniture was arranged around the room.

 The man sat and waited. The only entertainment that he could think of was to play with his pocket watch to relieve the boredom. After over an hour with no arrivals and with the apparent disappearance of the elderly woman, he gave up his wait and let himself out of the house, closing the door behind him.

After a few minutes and having walked a little away from the house, the man realised that he had left his watch behind. He retraced his steps. Upon reaching the building again, he stopped in shock and his mouth dropped open. In the few minutes since his leaving, the appearance of the house had completely changed. The front of the building was now very dirty, windows were broken, paint was peeling from the previously well maintained door.

The man mounted the steps to the door and raised the now rusty knocker. The noise of the knocks now thundered as though the interior of the hallway was empty of furniture and carpet. No aged crone came to now peeling window and no-one opened the door. The man stepped back down the steps scratching his head in disbelief and puzzlement.

 Confused thoughts were whizzing round his head. He had no idea what was going on. After a few minutes he managed to contact a neighbour and on asking about the occupants of the near derelict house was told, “No-one has lived in this house for sixty years, all the occupants are dead.”

The man was absolutely flabbergasted. He was so out of sorts by this ‘double reality’ experience that he left. After a day or so wrestling with the events, he went to the police and with their assistance was able to regain entry to the house. In the room that he had sat in on his first visit, he found his watch. It was rusted, tarnished and covered in dust as though it had been there for decades. No-one could ever provide an adequate explanation for the man’s experience.

According to Jung this really happened and was reported as an event rather than as a fictional story. Timeslip; fact or fiction?

Before leaving timeslips, the Philadelphia Experiment deserves a mention. It is difficult to really accept it as a fact; nevertheless rumours persist leaving us to wonder. Briefly the story goes something like this. In October 1943, the destroyer USS Eldridge was the subject of a dramatic experiment. It is claimed that while the warship was in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard it became invisible.

Naturally, and reasonably enough, it was claimed to be a hoax. The US Navy certainly denies any such experiment took place. Employing the Unified Field Theory some argue that the combination of electromagnetic radiation and gravity bent light around the ship rendering it invisible to observers. In an earlier experiment observers claimed that the ship almost disappeared and was surrounded by a green fog. In another we are told that while it nearly disappeared, it left an indentation in the water where the keel should have been. However, in the October experiment the observers stated that the ship disappeared completely in a blue flash.

The Navy admits that the Eldridge was engaged on a degaussing experiment at the time. Degaussing was employed by the Royal Navy and the US Navy to demagnetise their ships making them less vulnerable to magnetic mines. The process required that a wire was wrapped around the whole ship.

Another story suggests that in an attempt to render the ship invisible, the surrounding air and sea water was heated sufficiently to cause a mirage. It seems this was thought might confuse observers. There does seem to be little doubt and crew members experienced a range of ailments whatever the cause. Some of the ship’s company became disorientated, others mentally ill and some disappeared entirely. One report even said that crewmen were discovered fused to the hull. Reports tell that Einstein and Tesla were just two of a whole army of scientists working on the Philadelphia Experiment. (To add to the confusion, Tesla was dead at the time.)

But just a moment’s rational thought is bound to deliver the verdict that this story is nothing more that an intriguing hoax. However, there is a problem. Within minutes of the Eldridge being seen in Philadelphia it was also seen 375 miles (604 kilometres) away in Norfolk, Virginia.

Could this be an example of timeslip on a large scale? This event, or non event as the case may be, is well documented and may be researched under its correct name of Project Rainbow.

TIMESLIP PART 1

This post was published in the co-written book with Pete Haines titled 'So You Think We're Alone'. It is written through Pete's eyes.

 

A quick look at the baffling phenomenon of timeslip. It’s nothing new.

            While researching this book, two odd events took place for which timeslip might provide an answer. They each happened to me and after discussing them with Clive he suggested timeslip. Maybe he’s right. Our home in Gloucestershire had been devastated by the summer floods of 2007. The ground floor was a mess and it was a stressful and unpleasant time.

I’d spent the morning upstairs in my study working on the manuscript. It was time for a break and as I was about to wrap up a chapter when I heard the front door open. Then there was the sound of a footfall on the tiles of the hall followed by the door closing. Clearly my wife was home for lunch. It was usual for her to shout a greeting to me, but on this occasion there was nothing but silence. Odd, thought I. I shouted, “Hello darling.” Still no response. Odder still. I went downstairs to investigate but there was no sign of my wife. I opened the front door and looked around outside. No, she definitely wasn’t home.

For a moment I forgot about this while I made a cup of tea and went into the back garden for a smoke. Then my wife appeared with a bemused look on her face. She had just arrived home that very second. “That was funny,” she said. “When I came in I heard you shout ‘hello darling’. But you’re out here.” By ‘out here’ she meant that it would have been impossible to hear me shout anything from the back garden. I am guessing but the time between me shouting “hello darling” and my wife arriving home would have been about 8 to 10 minutes.

The very next day another incident made me raise my eyebrows. My 15 year old son was working in my study, allegedly doing his homework. I heard him call out to me, “What?” as teenagers do. I went to the bottom of the stairs to see him standing at the top. I must have had a stupid expression on my face. “What is it?” he said.

“What’s what?” I replied rather lamely.

“What do you want?”

This was turning into a farce. Before this exchange gets too boring I’d better skip a few lines.

“You called me,” he said.

“Actually, I didn’t,” I replied.

“Yeah, you did. I heard you clearly.”

Well, I had called him some twenty minutes earlier but hadn’t received a response. What was going on here? Clive explained that the energies in the house might easily have been upset by the floods and the huge damage our home sustained. Well, maybe so and that would certainly explain another odd series of events, although I don’t see that they were linked to timeslip.

The flood had ravaged the back garden, a garden on which much time, expense and love had been expended. Many trees and shrubs were dead and dying, weeds were growing and it looked a mess. Thankfully the shrubs in the many pots had all survived the wretched inundation.

 One such potted plant was a Japanese acer. Around the base of the tree was a layer of fossils, the kind you pick up on the limestone paths and hills of the Cotswolds; the mulch with a difference. The lip of this pot stood some 20 inches (51cms) off the ground. For several mornings in a row some of the pebbles and fossils were removed from the pot and sprinkled around on the ground.

I puzzled over what might be the culprit or cause. Too heavy for birds, too high and heavy for hedgehogs, cats didn’t seem likely since I’d never seen cats picking up stones. No way dogs could get into the garden, nor foxes or badgers. I was bemused. Only one thing for it. I phoned Clive. For a moment there was silence as he digested my weird story. To my considerable surprise he proposed a solution to the mystery.

“I think you’re being nudged by the garden devas. They’re telling you that they’re not happy that you’re neglecting the garden. Tidy it up, Pete. I think you’ll find that the fossils will stay in the pot then.”

I hung up and thought for a moment or two. Checking there wasn’t anyone in earshot I said aloud, “OK, OK, I’ll sort the garden out.”  I confess to having felt a little foolish.

Sure enough, next morning none of the fossils had been disturbed; nor the morning after, nor again the morning after that. However, on the next morning there was one fossil on the ground. The following morning there were several, and then there were piles all over the place. Could Clive be right?

 Saturday arrived and I vowed to devote the whole day to a garden tidy up. From dawn to dusk I toiled without a break for lunch. Short breaks for tea and cigarettes I did allow myself. Before it was too dark to see anything, I decided I was done. I looked around with a sense of satisfaction and a mild backache.

Would next morning see fossils and pebbles displaced from their pot or would they remain in place? It was with a certain anticipation I hurried into the back garden early next morning. Not one out of place. All was just as it had been left the previous evening and to this day that is the way it has remained. Never once has a single fossil left the pot since my Saturday exertions. So, was Clive right? I leave that to you.

A delicious event marked the writing of the few paragraphs above. It was around half past midnight. Something hit the back of my head, rolled to the front of my head, landed on my chest and fell to the floor. I turned all the lights on trying to see what it was. Lying on the carpet was a tiny L-shaped piece of ancient leather, just 2cms (0.79 inches) at its longest. No amount of searching gave me any indication from whence it had come.

Clive and I wondered if this was a sign of approval as we continue to write this book? We wondered at the significance of its L-shape. It wasn’t until my wife came home that light was shone on the possible relevance. “It’s L for Lily,” she said. For several years now I have been advised that my own spirit guide is a young teenager called Lily. And maybe it was Lily who was removing the pebbles and fossils to motivate me to tidy up her garden?

More in part 2 later.

DOUBLES PART 3

There seem to be a number of different causes or features for this phenomenon of doubles. There is the one above in part 2 which is a psychic projection in the same time frame and drains the physical body. Then the phenomena experienced by Jaqueline of both ‘halves’ of the double being aware of each other. There is the example of the opposite personality or ‘shadow’ personality outlined in Birch’s friend’s railway experience. (There are other examples of this.) There is the projection of a future self as Von Goethe experienced. There is also the ‘harbinger of doom’ experience of Abraham Lincoln which may very well be a preparation from the higher self for a time when the personality would be leaving incarnation.

The knock on my door was firm and insistent. The door swung open to reveal Stan (name changed) one of my old training partners from Marathon running days.

Good gracious, said I, a blast from the past. The visitor was invited in and reminiscences flowed thick and fast for the next couple of hours. The flow of convivial conversation was assisted by copious amounts of varying types of Mexican firewater. After some time Stan, who was well in his cups by this time, told the following story.

 I have read your book, the one with the blue cover. It was most fascinating. I have a story of my own as I believe in these things that you have highlighted. Many years ago I had a relationship with a young woman who was ten years younger than me. She became pregnant. To my utter shame later I abandoned her to a lonely abortion. I was just too immature. Throughout the years I have recalled this story in my mind and attempted, with varying degrees of success, to forgive myself. The years rolled by and I married a woman much younger than myself. We have had our ups and downs but, over the years come to an accommodation which is comfortable for both of us.

 I have something of an obsession with dates. A little while ago I went over the dates of that old relationship really to find out what was the age of the person that was aborted if it had been born. I satisfied myself that I had calculated correctly and let the event rest. I saw this exploration as part of my self forgiveness. It was with some shock that I realized later that the age of the child, had it been born, was almost exactly the same as my current wife. Since then my mind has been in turmoil about these events. Around the same time I read your book and decided to look you up as I felt that you may be able to help me in what is going on.

I concentrated on the story through the mists of the alcohol as the tale unfolded. This was my reply. You know it is possible that the unborn child was due to form a relationship with you. If it couldn’t be achieved in a father daughter way then perhaps that soul returned and you are completing this relationship as husband and wife.

 It isn’t necessary to remain upset about the decisions in the past. Forgive yourself, move on and don’t repeat what you believe to be a great error of judgement; relax, enjoy the relationship that you have. As a friend once told me, ‘everything is in divine order’. I don’t get any great insight into your story. It is enough to be aware of the synchronicities and accept.

As Stan disappeared out of the door and I was alone again in my flat I wasn’t sure that I had helped him that much but found the story fascinating and somehow deeply moving. It certainly gave another slant to relationships and our planning in making them.

This is from About.com: Paranormal Phenomena

Sister Mary of Jesus

Bilocation seems to be the flip side of the doppelganger coin. One of the most astonishing cases took place in the 1620s. In 1622, Father Alonzo de Benavides was assigned to the Isolita Mission in what is now New Mexico. He was puzzled to encounter Jamano Indians who, although they seemed never before to have met French or Spanish peoples, carried crosses, knew Roman Catholic rituals, had altars and knew Catholic liturgy - all in their native tongue.

Father Benavides wrote to both Pope Urban VII and King Philip of Spain to find out who had been there before him, obviously working to convert the Indians. The response was that no one had been sent previously. The Indians told him that they had been instructed in Christianity by a beautiful young "lady in blue" who came among them for many years and taught them this new religion in their own language. She also told them that white-skinned people would soon arrive in their land. "She came down from the heights to us," the Indians said, "she taught us the new religion, she stayed among us for a time, she told us you would come and to make you welcome, and then she went away. That’s all we know."

Who was this mysterious lady in blue? Father Benavides knew that the nuns of the Poor Clare order wore blue habits and thought there might be a clue there. He found a painting of a Poor Clare nun and showed it to the Jamanos. "Is this the woman?" he asked. The dress was right, the Indians told him, but this was not the woman. The woman in the painting was rather portly, but the lady in blue was young and beautiful.

When he returned to Spain, Father Benavides was determined to solve the mystery. How could the Indians have encountered a Poor Clare nun when they were a cloistered order: from the day they took their vows until their deaths, the nuns never left their convents, much less traveled to distant lands on missions.

 His investigation led him to Sister Mary of Jesus in Agreda, Spain, who claimed to have converted North American Indians - without leaving her convent. Now 29 and Mother Superior of the convent, Sister Mary said she had visited the Indians "not in body, but in spirit."

Sister Mary said she regularly fell into a cataleptic trance, after which she recalled "dreams" in which she was carried to a strange and wild land, where she taught the gospel. As proof of her claim, she was able to provide highly detailed descriptions of the Jamano Indians, including their appearance, clothing and customs, none of which she could have learned through research since they were fairly recently discovered by the Europeans. How did she learn their language? "I didn’t," she replied. "I simply spoke to them - and God let us understand one another."

Sister Mary is also said to have appeared to Mexican Indians, who said they had been visited by "a very beautiful woman, who used to come down from the heights, dressed in blue garments.”

My experience of such a situation occurred years ago when sharing my life with an Irish girl. Her mother was dying in Ireland. I asked if Brigid, my Irish girlfriend at the time, would allow me to conduct a healing on her mother’s behalf. I closed my eyes and entered a meditation.

 I immediately found myself next to a bed with an old lady in it. She was quiet and still; around the bed stood other beings. The being standing next to me turned towards me. The energy of this being was so powerful that I was immediately thrust back in my body here in the third dimension. Was only my consciousness projected to the bedside? Would the sick person have seen me there? I will never know. Were the beings standing around the bed helping the old lady into the next part of her existence? It was clear to me that my presence and healing energies were not required.

Friend Sean has two doubles that he knows of. One is his brother with whom he has a close relationship. They communicate well and easily when they get together. The other double is a woman in Toronto.

One night before a business meeting in the Canadian City Sean dreamed of a woman pacing back and forth accross his bedroom. The next day as Sean entered the meting room he saw the very same woman sitting in on the meeting. He knew the connection was that of a double. They spoke to each other finding the communication most pleasant, convivial and comfortable.

At our meeting the subject of ‘doubles’ cropped up in the conversation and so Sean related a story of how a few years ago he had been doing some work with a psychic and had previously told a friend of his where he would be going, as his friend had visited the same psychic only a few days earlier. During the meeting, the psychic looked up and mouthed “go away”. He then explained to Sean that a figure had popped up. He told Sean who the figure was and said “they were being nosey”. The figure had been Sean’s friend. Obviously the friend had been thinking about Sean and where he was at that time and the psychic had clearly seen a projection of his friend’s energy in the room with them. This type of projection could offer a possible explanation for the phenomenon of ‘doubles’ but Sean didn’t think so.

DOUBLES PART 2

This is what Wikipedia has to say on the subject of doubles.

In the vernacular, "Doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person—most commonly an "evil twin". The literal translation of the German word is "doublewalker", meaning someone who is acting (e.g. walking) the same way as another person

.

 The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. (I sees this view as a fear of the unknown.)

In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance. This sounds similar to John’s experience in part 1 who saw and sensed Laverne double following her.

This is the alleged Doppelganger story involving Abraham Lincoln.

Carl Sandburg's biography contains the following:

A queer dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter. On the evening of his election he had thrown himself on one of the haircloth sofas at home, just after the first telegrams of November 6 had told him he was elected President, and looking into a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces.

It bothered him; he got up; the illusion vanished; but when he lay down again there in the glass again were two faces, one paler than the other. He got up again, mixed in the election excitement, forgot about it; but it came back, and haunted him. He told his wife about it; she worried too.

A few days later he tried it once more and the illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes. But that was the last; the ghost since then wouldn't come back, he told his wife, who said it was a sign he would be elected to a second term, and the death pallor of one face meant he wouldn't live through his second term.

This is adapted from Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) by Noah Brooks, who claimed  he had heard it from Lincoln himself on 9 November 1864, at the time of his re-election, and that he had printed an account "directly after." He also claimed that the story was confirmed by Mary Todd Lincoln, and partially confirmed by Private Secretary John Hay (who thought it dated from Lincoln's nomination, not his election). Brooks's version is as follows (in Lincoln's own words):

It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other.

 I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened.

 When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it.

Lincoln was known to be superstitious, and old mirrors will occasionally produce double images; whether this Janus illusion can be counted as a doppelgänger is perhaps debatable, though suggests that Lincoln suffered vertical strabismus in his left eye, a disorder which could induce visions of a vertically-displaced image probably no more than other such claims of doppelgängers.

In a case that suggests that doppelgangers might have something to do with time or dimensional shifts, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the 18th century German poet, confronted his doppelganger while riding on the road to Drusenheim. Riding toward him was his exact double, but wearing a gray suit trimmed in gold. Eight years later, von Goethe was again traveling on the same road, but in the opposite direction. He then realized he was wearing the very gray suit trimmed in gold that he had seen on his double eight years earlier! Had von Goethe seen his future self?

Relating this story to Jaqueline’s above, did she see a version of her future self entering the store as a customer in later times?

One of the most fascinating reports of a doppelganger comes from American writer Robert Dale Owen who was told the story by Julie von Güldenstubbe, the second daughter of the Baron von Güldenstubbe. In 1845, when von Güldenstubbe was 13, she attended Pensionat von Neuwelcke, an exclusive girl's school near Wolmar in what is now Latvia. One of her teachers was a 32-year-old French woman named Emilie Sagée. And although the school's administration was quite pleased with Sagée's performance, she soon became the object of rumor and odd speculation. Sagée, it seemed, had a double that would appear and disappear in full view of the students.

In the middle of class one day, while Sagée was writing on the blackboard, her exact double appeared beside her. The doppelganger precisely copied the teacher's every move as she wrote, except that it did not hold any chalk. The event was witnessed by 13 students in the classroom. A similar incident was reported at dinner one evening when Sagée's doppelganger was seen standing behind her, mimicking the movements of her eating, although it held no utensils.

The doppelganger did not always echo her movements, however. On several occasions, Sagée would be seen in one part of the school when it was known that she was in another at that time. The most astonishing instance of this took place in full view of the entire student body of 42 students on a summer day in 1846. The girls were all assembled in the school hall for their sewing and embroidery lessons.

As they sat at the long tables working, they could clearly see Sagée in the school's garden gathering flowers. Another teacher was supervising the children. When this teacher left the room to talk to the headmistress, Sagée's doppelganger appeared in her chair - while the real Sagée could still be seen in the garden. The students noted that Sagée's movements in the garden looked tired while the doppelganger sat motionless. Two brave girls approached the phantom and tried to touch it, but felt an odd resistance in the air surrounding it. One girl actually stepped between the teacher's chair and the table, passing right through the apparition, which remained motionless. It then slowly vanished.

Sagée claimed never to have seen the doppelganger herself, but said that whenever it was said to appear, she felt drained and fatigued. Her physical color even seemed to pale at those times.

Does this draining and fatiguing above have the same cause as that for Mary above?

DOPPELGANGERS OR DOUBLES

PART 1

Humans are more than external perception

I arrived at the house of friends John and Laverne. Standing in the hallway we three caught up on the news in each others lives after kisses and handshakes were exchanged. Upstairs I could hear someone moving around as the floorboards creaked under the pressure of moving feet.

Ah, your son Martin must be visiting, said I assuming that the creaking floorboards were the result of his shifting weight. John gave me a piercing look but said nothing. I thought this looked a little odd however the conversation quickly moved on. Later that night in the quiet of his study John recounted the following tale.

There are times when I am sitting at the foot of the stairs talking on the phone there. On occasions Laverne will come down the stairs and turn left past me in order to go into the kitchen. There is nothing unusual in that except, at certain times, she is followed by a spectre that I cannot see but I hear its footsteps on the stairs following Laverne. As she turns and passes me I sense her energy. Immediately afterwards I sense another energy. This energy is exactly the same as that of Laverne that preceded it. It is as though she is being followed by a psychic doppelganger.

How fascinating, I said. Are there any other strange happenings?

Yes indeed, replied my host. I have seen the spirit of my son Martin walking around the house. When I later asked Martin about this phenomenon the latter claimed to be thinking about his old home (Martin now lives elsewhere) when he is working. So it seems to be a case of psychic projection. Perhaps due to close connection he feels with this place and the psychic links that the two of us have between each other.

That story seems to confirm my hearing of footsteps when I came in, I rejoined.

Got it in one, triumphed John. I didn’t say anything when you heard the footsteps upstairs as it would probably have spooked Laverne.

So, I thought finally. This is an example of the Doppelganger translated as double walker from the German language.

Here is another example of, what could best be described, as a ‘deliberate’ double. My healer friend Doug Ashcroft heard how a previous client had developed a serious cancerous condition. Right, he said I will ask her to come to England for healing from her New Mexican home. The contact who had told Doug of the friend’s cancer said,

There is no way that she will come.

I will contact her now and she will come, said Doug who is not under-imbued with self confidence. He went into meditation, projected his consciousness into the friend’s house and left a message for her to come for healing. Within a day Doug received a telephone call from the suffering friend who commented ironically on the image of Doug appearing in her house and urging her to come to England. The friend told Doug that she had already arrived in London, England, in response to his psychic appearance, and would be travelling to Stroud immediately for life giving healing; and so it proved.

I later recalled the instance of one of my friends describing the appearance of his Doppelganger or double. He was standing at the railway station waiting for a train when to his utter amazement he looked at the rails only to find his image looking back at him but in a leering, unpleasant manner. The friend is the reverse of these unpleasant characteristics in this three dimensional existence. He is a man of exemplary character in his life with family and friends. The above story seems to be an example of the ‘evil twin’ idea outlined below in the Wikipedia explanation.

The following is an experience of mine that is taken from our book ‘So You Think That We’re Alone?’ This occurred as I arrived at Yogananda’s ashram in Northern California.

Beneath a tree which offering some sort of shade, sat a man relaxing in his chair. Oh, said he, you have returned to us.

Uh, no, Birch replied. I’ve never been here before.

Yes, you have.

No, I haven’t. Not wishing this encounter to degenerate in pantomime, Birch wandered towards the ashram’s office.

This bizarre exchange could easily have been put down to mistaken identity had it not been for another encounter the following morning. Another person Birch had never seen welcomed him back to the ashram. Two cases of mistaken identity were not so easy to dismiss. The visit had started with an interesting twist.

Perhaps I had been there before projecting an unconscious image of myself. I never investigated the incident further.

Jaqueline, my wife recounts the story of a time when she worked as a supermarket check-out cashier. One day, between serving customers, she glanced up and received what she described as ‘the shock of her life’. As she casually glanced in the direction of the supermarket entrance a woman walked in who was the exact physical double of herself. The height, hair, skin colour, body shape even the style of the spectacles were both exactly the same.

 It was as though they had both been cast from the same mould they were so similar. The woman caught sight of the staring Jaqueline and appeared equally shocked. The woman continued to stare at Jaqueline, open mouthed head turned to the right, as she all the while walked forward towards the lines of tall refrigerators in front of her. Jaqueline struggled in her mind with this bizarre situation as her ‘double’ disappeared out of sight.

 Jaqueline hoped that the woman would come to her till so that she could question her concerning this strange situation. Unfortunately the other woman did not have the courage or the interest to uncover more of this odd connection. She checked out at a different till to Jaqueline’s. In addition the other woman never returned to the store in the year and a half that Jaqueline continued to work there. This story surfaces the question as to whether there are physical doubles or Doppelgangers in this three dimensional reality as well as psychically perceived ones.

 Was this vision an example of the time dimensional shift mentioned below? If so then Jaqueline saw herself in the supermarket.

Friend Mary Fitzgerald had a similar experience to Jaqueline in respect of an encounter with a physical double. On a day out at Glastonbury with boyfriend Mike she was sitting in their car waiting for proceedings with their ritual group to begin. When across Mary’s line of vision appeared an exact double of her physical body even down to the type of headband that she normally wore. The double moved across the front of the car and on into the crowd not to be seen again.

 Later that morning Mary became greatly de-energised for no apparent reason. The story becomes more puzzling. A few days later Mary recounted her experience to me. I received a vision of the background to this phenomenon. I sensed that Mary’s higher self had sent a near facsimile of herself into incarnation in order to double the amount of information that it could receive from this sector of third dimensional experience. The de-energising experience that Mary had was, according to my inner perspective, a realignment of her energies.

 This occurred in order to create a greater connection with higher self and other associated soul fragments. This would give Mary greater potential for wise counsel and information that she would not otherwise receive. By the experience of Mary seeing her double but the double not seeing her then the gift was for Mary only. Another aspect of the de-energising is outlined later in the story concerning Emilie Sagee which follows in another part.

Musing further on the phenomena I wondered if the higher self or soul is split before birth so that double the amount of experience can be fed back to the higher self in one lifetime from two humans. This could be one explanation.

EGYPT PART 3

It is now time for the last temple visits. The ‘time team’ stand on a stone causeway stretching away from Luxor temple. They sense that they have stood on this royal road, flanked by sphinx’s, in times past. I am engulfed by a vision of the three of us in a procession following the pharaoh with lines of priests flanking the procession. Faye, in the vision, saw herbal fronds cast on the floor releasing their perfume as the passing procession stepped on them. Palm fronds waved to cool the procession as the sun beat down from a cloudless sky.

The vision was so real I could feel the heat of the sun bouncing off my white robes. I sensed that the three were part of the spiritual entourage of this pharaoh. The atmosphere was full of loud noises from cymbal, drum and horn. There was an expectant air of excitement around the event. It was as though a great ceremony was about to be performed in Luxor Temple. That was it. The vision faded and we were back in the twenty first century

 Outside the vision I thought the Pharoah was Ramses 11. This temple is largely dedicated to him with a small part built by Hatshepsut. I sensed a peaceful benign energy here. We three walked towards the temple. As we moved I sensed the barrier between this density, the third dimensional one, and a parallel one becoming thinner such that they, the dimensions, began to merge. Perhaps one of the reasons for our visit was to experience this thinning of the veil between densities or dimensions. We, mystics here-present, may have played a small part in this phenomenon.

The final temple visit was, for me, to the jewel in the crown Karnak Temple. This was one of the three spiritual centres that I had co-operated in bringing together energetically months before in a healing meditation. The other two had been Carnac in Brittany and Callanish in Scotland.

The full story of this triad of centres which were healed and re-energised is told in our previous book We’re Still not Alone. It was to here I needed to come on this trip. Jaqueline and Audrey were sick. Only Faye and I were fit enough to make this trip. We stand in front of the sacred lake. Faye remembers being here in another life although not the same as her Filae life. In the Karnak life Faye was trying to escape life in the temple. As she made her escape she was pursued by a man attempting to dissuade her. The escape route was by boat through a tunnel not visible at the present water level.

As we entered the temple I felt connected and comfortable immediately. I was at home. The party entered the Hypostyle hall, the eighth wonder of the world according to guide Radwan. This magnificent place contains one hundred and thirty columns decorated with writing and cartouche from bottom to top. Each column is around fifty feet high. As I sat at the foot of one of the columns I sensed that the mass of detail around me in this powerful place was to throw the mind of the observer out of the mundane and drive the consciousness inward. The plethora of information was too much for the objective consciousness to absorb.

It was time to leave Egypt and return to ‘dear old blighty’ aka Britain. As the party prepared to leave I recalled a conversation I had with Radwan, our caring and able guide, concerning the famous or infamous Danish cartoons about the prophet Mohammed. Radwan is a well educated man, he has a Phd. as well as being exposed to western culture and values. He had spoken passionately concerning his anger over the cartoons lampooning the prophet in a Danish newspaper.

 For the first time I saw the argument from the other side. Freedom of speech is a right in our society that must be protected. However there is also the issue of respecting the views and feelings of other cultures. Muslims, even well educated ones, such as Radwan, are greatly hurt by the lack of respect shown to their religion. I was also struck by the clash of culture between the western libertarian and the Eastern Muslim. No wonder there are problems over the interpretation of what represents human rights, democracy and old fashioned respect.

We also quizzed Radwan on the nature of the original spiritual and religious practices that were conducted here. He reluctantly agreed that the Isis cult was alive active but was not happy to give any further information. I felt his Moslem religion precluded any involvement with the original practices. It was clear that although he was immensely proud of these fantastic buildings and complexes in his country he did not wish to investigate the meaning behind them. Perhaps later generations of Egyptians will honour this most important part of their heritage.

Postcript

There was one item that came after the trip. Jaqueline and I were enjoying a pleasant social evening with friends Joan and Mary. Suddenly the lights in Joan’s house blinked on and off at the same time the cat flap in the back door swung forward and back violently as though someone or something had entered the house. There was no wind outside. It was as though this someone or something was making a psychic entrance, and so it proved.

 That evening a spiritual being made its presence felt to Joan. It was very tall, serious natured and dressed from head to toe in black. Joan had no idea initially what the being was doing entering her consciousness. Later friends told Joan that they thought it was a Nubian being and that it had travelled back from Egypt with Jaqueline and me.

The following week Mary, Joan and I met for their normal weekly meditation. During the meditation Mary and I sensed that this being was present to assist Joan in her spiritual work. That it was to act as a bridge between the spiritual realms and the physical in order to transmit messages back and forth when requested. Birch also sensed that this work was a development process for the tall being.

A couple of days before the social meeting above a very benign being came into my consciousness early one morning. This being smiled broadly and warmly at me as though he was pleased with me. I sensed that this man was Celtic in origin. At the same meditation above Mary felt that this being was there to help me with inspiration in the work that would present itself in the future.

Later that year Audrey and I started to work with a particular energy form. Within days of starting that work I began to receive the vision of walking towards Luxor temple behind the Pharaoh in ancient times. The difference this time was that the vision became stronger and stronger. It re-occurred in my consciousness time after time.

 There was something here attempting to break through into objective awareness. It was time to meditate deeply on this matter. I felt drawn to consult Audrey on this matter for two reasons. First of all the reason for the enhanced vision related to my current work with Audrey and second because we shared at least one life together in ancient Egypt in the court of the pharaoh.

 To date I am still awaiting any further revelations that may present themselves.